Canada’s Privacy Community Releases Open Letter, Background Paper on Copyright and Technological Threats to Privacy

Canada’s Privacy Community Releases Open Letter, Background Paper on Copyright and Technological Threats to Privacy

Privacy Commissioners of Canada, Ontario and British Columbia Release Own Letters of Concern

Ottawa, ON – May 17, 2006 – A group of public-interest oriented organizations and privacy and civil liberties experts have released an open letter to the Ministers of Canadian Heritage and Industry along with a Background Paper detailing their concerns over how proposed changes to Canadian copyright law implicate privacy, freedom of expression and civil liberties. The open letter focuses on dangers to privacy posed by the extension of legal protection to “digital rights management” (DRM) technology.

In separate letters of support, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, David Loukidelis, and Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, each wrote to Minister of Canadian Heritage Bev Oda and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier to express their concern with the privacy implications of DRM technology.

“The Canadian government has not publicly consulted on the privacy implications of possible copyright reforms,” notes CIPPIC staff counsel David Fewer. “The signatories to the open letter argue that the infamous Sony BMG ‘rootkit’ DRM demonstrates that their privacy concerns are well-founded, and that the time has come for the Canadian government to consider ‘copyright law reforms that would protect Canadians from the use of DRM’, and not ‘reforms that would provide protection for DRM.’”

Mr. Fewer adds that the Commissioners’ letters signal the seriousness with which they view the privacy issues associated with DRM. “The time to address these issues is now, before we see a copyright bill – not during review in Committee.”

The Privacy Community’s open letter seeks assurances from the government that:

any proposed copyright reforms will prioritize privacy protection by including a full privacy consultation and a full privacy impact assessment with the introduction of any copyright reform bill;

any proposed anti-circumvention provisions will create no negative privacy impact; and

any proposed copyright reforms will include pro-active privacy protections that, for example, enshrine the rights of Canadians to access and enjoy copyright works anonymously and in private.

About Canada’s Privacy Community: The signatories to the letter include some of Canada’s best known public-interest organizations and leading academic privacy experts. Signatories include:

Association for Media and Technology in Education in Canada

Atlantic Provinces Library Association

BC Civil Liberties Association

BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association

BC Library Association

Colin Bennett, Professor of Political Science, University of Victoria

Canadian Association of University Teachers

Canadian Federation of Students

Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic

Canadian Library Association

CLUE : The Canadian Association for Open Source

Consumers Association of Canada

Electronic Frontier Canada

Electronic Frontier Foundation

FLORA.org

Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa

Marsha Hanen, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, University of Victoria

Ian Kerr, Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law & Technology at the University of Ottawa

Library Association of Alberta

Online Rights Canada

Ontario Library Association

Bruce Phillips, Former Privacy Commissioner of Canada (1991-2000)

Privaterra

Pubic Interest Advocacy Centre

Teresa Scassa, Director of the Law and Technology Institute and Associate Professor at Dalhousie Law School

Val Steeves, Professor, Faculty of Criminology, University of Ottawa

Paul Van Oorschot, Canada Research Chair in Network and Software Security, at Carleton University

About CIPPIC: CIPPIC is the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, Canada’s only technology law clinic. CIPPIC was established in 2003 at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. CIPPIC’s mandate is to advocate for balance in policy and law-making on issues arising out of new technologies.

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It's such a lucid categorization of the problem, and presents an undeniable path towards a solution. It may sound silly, but I felt so uplifted just reading it. One more nebulous problem just got pinned down.